Taking Bloodlines
by Angellwriter
Summary: In wave, Sakura mistakenly kills Haku and activates a hidden kekei genkai. Her kekei genkai is a strange one that takes the memory, jutsu's and even kekei genkai's of the people she kills. But she soon finds out that her kekei genkai is a double-edged sword. "...I'm going to die."
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: Naruto, not mine.**

**Summary: **In wave, Sakura mistakenly kills Haku and activates a hidden kekei genkai. Her kekei genkai is a strange one that takes the memory, jutsu's and even kekei genkai's of the people she kills. But she soon finds out that her kekei genkai is a double-edged sword. "...I'm going to die."

* * *

The mist was thick. It was hard to see through, had to breath in and gave Sakura a sense of being surrounded. Even her hearing was dulled thanks to the chakra laced mist. Still, she hear Naruto.

"You killed Sasuke. I'll kill you." His voice echoed around her.

No, no. he couldn't be dead, he couldn't. Sasuke was strong, so strong, he couldn't possibly be dead, it wasn't right. Sakura liked Sasuke, so much. Given time with him she was sure it would be love. But she would get no more time with him, not another second, he was dead. She would never get to see that smirk again, never hear his voice. what she wouldn't do to hear him call her annoying again. Anything at all as long as he was alive. They were so young. They shouldn't have been here, only gennin, and if even Sasuke couldn't survive what hope did she have? She'd never taken being a ninja seriously, at first she join to be close to Ino, then she stayed for Sasuke. She was always selfish, she never had dreams bigger than being with Sasuke.

Anger took hold of her, consumed her. These people were the one who had taken Sasuke away. Had killed him. And they did it all, for what? Money? How petty, to take someones life, the life of someone so young for money. A few Ryo was not worth someones life, not Sasuke's life.

when the mist cleared slightly and she saw a figure, she did, the kunai that had been held so tightly in her hand, was now flying towards them. Sakura realised, just as the weapon left her had that she didn't know who she threw it at, The person looked big, too big to be Naruto or even the boy that killed Sasuke. She was relieved, and slightly satisfied, that the boy got in the way, Sasuke's killer. The mist was soon gone, she saw Kakashi with his hand in the boys chest, but what caught her eye, but no others, was the kunai lodged right in his heart. That kunai was mine, I realised, Kakashi-sensei may have had a hand in his chest, but there was no denying that Sakura had killed him. A kunai to the heart was an instant death, if Kakashi would have hit him first, she would live for a little while. Not enough time to save himself unless he was very skilled in medical ninjutsu, but he wouldn't have died instantly. But the kunai caught no ones attention but mine, even Tazuna hadn't seen it being thrown.

I had kill someone. I had darkened my soul by killing someone who did nothing to me. My eyes hardened, no I had killed a killer, Sasuke's killer. He would have died anyway.

I suddenly feel to my knees. A terrible searing pain shot through my head, I felt as if someone was messing with my brain. I felt something dribbling out my nose and mouth. My mind was overloading, new information was filing in, keys felt like they were being unlocked inside my brain. Memories that were not mine flashed, knowledge that I'd never know was now accessible to me. Names, dates, jutsus, people, places, recipes, a whole life shoved into me, into my head. Haku, the boy, I had his memories. Frantically I tried to sort it out, this new information was going to short-circuit my brain, I'd die.

**I won't let us die. I'll sort it out. Shannaro.**

Both her and he inner personality worked, sorting information as it flowed into her mind.

**Found something interesting, it might help. **Her Inner supplied her with something.

It was an ability, a kekei genkai of Haku's, the boy whose memories where now being crammed into her head.

_I can't use that, I don't have a kekei genkai._ I told her.

**Try it, if we don't get at least a little more time to sort through this we might die.** She said as she was still frantically sorting.

I nodded and tried, worst case it didn't work. I manipulated my chakra like in the memory, letting it flow, I felt as if I had done this many times before, and, to by surprise, it worked. Everything slowed, the stream came in slower, much slower and it was easier for us to sort the new memories. But I also noticed other things, like my chakra, it was changing, growing, it was painful, I felt my coils altering. My reserves were over flowing, stretching to a painful degree. My chakra and my mind. They both were painful. It was too much, slowing it didn't make it anymore bearable.

Then, I couldn't handle it any more. I passed out.


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Kishimoto does.**

* * *

Waking up was very disorienting. Sakura didn't know what was anything. She didn't know who she was, for a second she thought she was Haku.

**No your Sakura, stupid.**

Her inner made sure she knew that she wasn't the boy she had just killed. Wait, had she just killed Haku? She wasn't on the bridge so it must have been after the fight. She recognised the room she had been staying at in Tazuna's house.

Her head still hurt, her chakra coils too. She was holding so much chakra that it felt as if it would burst out. Her head was also full of new information, some that was completely useless. Why would she know that the missing-nin Zabuza liked rabbit stewed and not roasted.

**Man this place is a mess. Do you mind if I throw some of this away, I can barely move.**

_Aa._

**Sweet, I'll have this place cleaned in to time. Shannaro.**

Inner spent the next hour throwing things away, I was grateful, my brain started to be able to process things now. Sakura didn't know why she had the memories of Haku or how. She didn't know why she now seemed to posses his kekei genkai or, what seemed like, his chakra reserve and, his chakra itself. She didn't know at all. But she did.

when Sakura's head was no longer in unbearable pain she sat up. Her coils still ached and she felt the need to expel it somehow. Her body wasn't use to having so much chakra.

"Finally up?" Sakura was startled by a voice, she turned and saw Kakashi-sensei.

Sakura looked at him, he was sitting next to her reading, she was in so much pain she hadn't noticed him.

Kakashi-sensei brought back memories, the bridge, Zabuza and Haku fighting Sasuke. Sasuke, he was de-

**He's not.**

_What?_

**It says here that Haku made it look like he was dead but didn't kill him. you know, like what he did with Zabuza.** Her inner told her, reading the memories as if they were a book.

I almost smiled, before frowning, I had killed an innocent boy, that was so bad. Haku wasn't a cold blooded killer like Zabuza, he was different, kind, gentle. He wasn't a killer and he hadn't killed Sasuke. He was the pretty boy with a sweet smile, the one who just wanted to protect the person who was precious to him. She had killed that boy.

"Ah, you caught that." She didn't realise that she had said it out loud until Kakashi commented. He knew, he knew that Sakura had blackened her hands, and her soul. How could he even look at her.

**Well to be fair he isn't. The pervert is looking at his pervy book.** Inner supplied still throwing things away.

I ignored her and changed the subject, I didn't want to talk about it.

"How is Sasuke and Naruto?" I asked, I had copied and I didn't know how the fight ended.

"Both fine, alive, uninjured mostly. Naruto's worried about you." Just Naruto. Not Sasuke.

"What happened to you?" Kakashi-sensei asked looked over his book briefly as he turned the page.

She didn't know if she should tell him. Should she say that she now had the life of the boy, he was just a boy, she had killed? She was so confused. But, she decided, she would tell her sensei.

"After I, after I...saw that my kunai hit. I was hit with this," She didn't know what to call it, it was pain, but there was something before something dark that smiled and said good. It felt both good and bad. I decided to leave that part out. "Pain. It was in my head, it felt like it was being invaded. Stuffed with something, with memories" I carried on. "It was all coming too fast, I felt myself dying, and then I caught something from the new wave, a jutsu, no a kekei genkai that slowed down time."

"Like Haku's?" He asked, I now held his whole attention.

"Yes, I used it too, the flow was going so fast that I couldn't sort it fast enough. I tried it and it worked. It was easier to sort though it after that. But them I noticed that my chakra was changing, my reserves stretched. It was so painful and I couldn't take it any more sensei. I think I passed out then." I told him, I left inner out of it too. I couldn't tell anyone about her.

"That's strange." He said going back to his book. He didn't fool me though, his eyes didn't move across the page. He wasn't reading.

"Sensei? Do you know what it means?" I asked slightly frightened, I didn't know what to think.

"I do not know. We will ask the Hokage about it when we get back." He said, his eyes smiling.

I nodded, I trusted Kakashi-sensei.

I moved to get out of the bed, I ached, my chakra was so full it hurt. I needed to burn some off now.

"Kakashi-sensei, I have to go burn off some chakra." I told him stepping towards the window, I didn't feel like dealing with Naruto right now.

"Aa. Be back in an hour or two." Kakashi went back to his book.

"Hai." I jumped out the window, it was a two story drop, but to a ninja it was nothing.

* * *

It had almost been an hour and a half no. And still I hadn't been able to get my reserves to a comfortable level. I'd walked up the tallest tree about fifty times and I'd done so many replacements, illusion clones and hedges. Still my chakra coils ached to release more. I had moved closer to a lake too, that was where the tallest trees were.

**Here, try this.** My inner said pulling a jutsu to my mind.

This is the ice mirror jutsu that Haku used. I replied. I don't know this, plus this is supposed to be a kekei genkai.

**Yea, but you could do the time slowing down thing and that's a kekei genkai too.**

_But you could explain that with adrenaline, I've heard that when you have an adrenaline rush that things could seem slower._

**Whatever. It's almost time to go back and we still have more chakra than we're comfortable with. Just try it, if it doesn't work we could always just run up some more trees.**

_Fine, but it won't work._

I studied the memory, most of them were done with on handed signs, I didn't know how to sign with only one hand.

**Try it. We can so do it. Shannaro.**

_Fine I'll try, I mean it won't work either way._

Though my hands felt clumsy doing the signs they flow through them at a quick rate. They felt both, familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. And I suppose it was, with Haku's memories I had done it many times but as Haku, in his body, In my body though, I had never done it.

I channelled chakra like the memory, letting it flow like I, like Haku, had done so many times.

I was both surprised and not to see water flow from the lake and form into the ice mirrors. I also sighed as a greater chakra left me. I still had way more than I ever had, but I no longer hurt. I knew my chakra would always be large now, once the chakra coils and reserve was stretched it could not be shrunken. I'd forever have a lot of chakra when it was full.

**Unless we make it bigger. We'll be chakra monsters. Shannaro.**

My eyes widened, I suppose I could get use to the pain eventually, but if it kept growing I would die. Not really, but the pain would be so unbearable, people were mostly born with a large or small chakra reserve, as they grew they so would it, but normally it wouldn't change drastically. Training, both physical and spiritual would make it grow more, though if someones chakra did grow drastically, she had read a book about a ninja who found a way to do it, they could fry their coils so badly that they would never be able to use chakra again. It was what had happen to the ninja in the book. He also said that the pain was unbearable, he had went on that that was what caused it, his coils changed so rapidly that it was painful. He couldn't get rid of his chakra fast enough and he'd fried his coils. There was also that fact. She was lucky that her coils hadn't already been altered beyond hope, She didn't know what would happen if she worked her chakra more. Even doing it naturally made her cringe.

_I don't think so inner._

**Come on, we could be the best ninja around, and Sasuke-kun would love us and marry us and we'd live happily ever after. Plus we could rub it in that Ino-pigs face.**

It sounded tempting, so tempting, but she wouldn't do that to herself, until she could get use to her reserve being so full, she wouldn't work on getting more.

**Fine, but when we get use to it we are going to so become a chakra monster. Shannaro.**

I sighed but smiled, inner was so great sometimes

**What? Only sometimes? You have it wrong my dear outter, _I am amazing all the time._**

I giggle and went back to training, undoing the ice mirrors and starting the jutsu again. I'd do a few more before heading back.

* * *

As I had predicted, as soon as Naruto saw me he ran at me.

"Sakura-chan. Are you alright? Kakashi-sensei said that you'd been hurt. Are you alright though? I didn't see you take a hit, I would have protected you if I had. Sakura-chan, please tell me your alright?" He went on, it was both really sweet and really annoying.

"Give me time to answer, idiot." I resulted to my default of yelling at him before calming down. "Yeah, I'm fine, just fine." It was a blatant lie but Naruto didn't catch it, he just grinned and went on about what I had missed and how awesome he was and, "Sakura-chan, Tazuna named the bridge after me."

I wasn't really listening, I had so much on my mind, and inner was pulling up memories for me to see, it was distracting.

**Oh sweet. Hey outter, look at this sweet jutsu, lets try it when we get home kay, oh and this one. Okay you know for a guy Haku is really flexible.**

_Wow, is that possible?_

**I don't know, but let's try this too. We could totally do this. Shannaro.**

_We have to do a lot of work to even try that._

**Yea but it would be awesome to do... Wait. Oh. My. Kami. There is no doubt that Haku was a boy. Damn, his body is finer than Sasuke-kun's.** Inner was flooding my mind with drool as she ogled a memory.

_Inner you perv. Throw that out now...and how would you know what Sasuke's body looks like?_

**Your right, I don't know what his body looks like. Do you think he'll show me so I can compare? **Inner was again drooling.

_How did I get stuck with such a perverted inner?_

**You'll just be begging to see these in a few years outter-chan. I'm years ahead of you.**

I sighed and got up, I needed to pack my things, we would be leaving in the morning. On my way to my room I came across Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun." I said, he looked at me blankly, waiting to see what I wanted.

I didn't know what to say, I felt like so much time had passed, I felt as if I had grown up in the short time we last talked. No, he never talked to me, the last time I spoke to him.

"I'm glad you didn't die." I smiled nervously, it was all I could think to say, "I'd hate to have to tell pig, she'd cry a river." I said slightly jokingly.

He didn't laugh, he didn't even smile, he just nodded and carried on walking. I deflated, I had worried so much, I'd been angry, I'd killed in that anger, and he had just brushed me off. He did it a lot but somehow this one hurt the most. I carried on to my room, I had stuff to pack.

* * *

I'd come down for dinner an hour later, Tsunami had cook a wonderful meal, I could only dream of making food as good as hers. Nothing I cooked tasted good.

Haku knows how to cook. Inner waved some papers, recipes, up to me. Let's try them when we get home, I swear Haku would make the perfect house wife. Inner snickered at her own joke. I didn't find it funny.

That's because you, my dear outter, have no sense of humor.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei." Naruto's voice drew my attention back to the dinner table. "What does it feel like to kill someone?"

I tensed, I knew what I should have done, what I would have done before the battle at the bridge. I'd knock him on the head, tell him that's not something to talk about at the dinner table and not in front of civilians. The I'd secretly wonder myself and thank Kami that I would find out for many years. But all because of the battle at the bridge, I tensed.

Kakashi's eyes flickered to me slightly, he played it off by looking up with a wondering expression.

"Hmm." He said, all attention was now on him, even Tazuna and his family. "The first time I killed someone was on a mission, it when horribly wrong and I had to do it to save a comrade, I don't regret it." Was all he said, he left out a lot though. It was a simple answer that just barely touched his emotions and he also never really answered the question.

"I'd kill if someone hurt my family." The little boys voice was steel, high-pitched and I couldn't take it. Killing Haku was so fresh in my mind, it lingered so close to the surface that I could feel it lurking. I slammed my hands on the table, it shook.

"Do you really believe that?" I snapped at Inari. "You could never understand what it is like to take a life. The guilt, the sorrow. What if that person that hurt your 'family' was innocent, was misunderstood. They could have been a good person in a bad situation, they could have friends and family of their own. You'll take that all away from them. He didn't even have anyone but that man, he was alone all his life. And you killed him, just because you thought he had killed your friend. But look, Sasuke's still alive and Haku was a good person and now he's dead because of you. Because I took my anger out on him, because I wanted revenge. IT'S ALL MY FAULT." I stopped, the room was rushing and I felt slightly dizzy, I looked around at each shocked face, at Inari who was near tears, I felt so bad.

"I apologise Inari-san, I was out of line." I bowed slightly, then turned to Tsunami. "I apologise Tsunami-san but I don't feel very hungry anymore." I quickly left holding back my tears. I ran outside instead of to the room they gave me. I needed air, and I needed to be alone.

* * *

"Kakashi-sensei, what was that about. What was Sakura talking about, your the one that..." Naruto trailed off not needing to go on.

"I may have drove my hand through his chest, but he was already dead." Kakashi explained then sighed, shaking his head. "I thought she was taking it too well."

"Well we have to cheer her up, we can't just leave her alone." Naruto said getting up.

"No." Kakashi put a had on his shoulder, "She needs to be alone right now. If you go to her now she'll only hurt you." Kakashi said.

"I don't care if Sakura hits me, she does it all the time anyway." Naruto said getting up.

She won't hit you Naruto. She'd say something hurtful. Kakashi thought.

"She needs to deal with this on her own." Kakashi said.

"Teme, don't just sit there, tell sensei that it doesn't matter, we're a team and we look out for each other no matter what." Naruto yelled at Sasuke who hadn't moved from his spot at the table.

Sasuke's mind was whirling, Sakura had killed someone to avenge him, to avenge his death. He'd never really given an extra thought to her, she was annoying and she was loud, she didn't spend enough time training and too much time on how she looked. She had little to no skills as a ninja and he could never picture her killing someone. But she had, she'd done it for him too. He couldn't let her suffer alone, and as much as it pained him to agree with the dobe, being alone was never the answer in times like this.

"Hn. Kakashi isn't blocking the door dobe." Sasuke said getting up and heading out the door that Sakura had left through.

Naruto grinned and jumped up running after Sasuke. Don't worry Sakura-chan, we're here for you.

* * *

Sakura was in a tall tree, She was on one of the top branchs and was just looking at the moon. It was full and glowed brightly. She sobbed quietly.

**It's okay **outter-chan**. I'm here for you. Let me sing you a song. **She cleared her throat.** Hush little **outter** don't you cry. We can't get over this if we don't try. And if we can't than that's too bad, but it won't help if you are sad. So hush little **outter**, **inners** here, sorry I can't wipe away your tears.**

Sakura tried to laugh but it only came out as a choked sob. She wished inner was a real person, she kind of wanted a hug right.

**I'm so sorry outter-chan.** Inner was sad, it didn't happen often, she was always happy or angry, she never was sad before.

"Are you alright Sakura-chan?" The voice frightened me and it was only my incredible control over chakra that saved me from plummeting to my death.

"Naruto?" I said looking to the left of me, Naruto was standing on a branch slightly lower then the one I was standing on.

"Yeah Sakura-chan. Me and Sasuke-teme are here." Naruto said.

"Sasuke?" I said confused, my brain was a little hazy, I couldn't quiet understand what he was saying.

"Hn. Dobe." I turned to my other side, Sasuke was a few branches higher than me and was sitting down, a leg propped up with his arm resting on it. He wasn't looking at them, but at the moon where she had been looking.

"Do you want to talk about it Sakura-chan?" Naruto said, for the first time ignoring Sasuke's insult.

Sakura found that, yes, she did want to talk about it, she wanted to tell them, everything. So that's what she did, she told them everything. She told them about what happen on the bridge, what she felt, the memories, the chakra, she even told them about Inner. She trusted them, more than she trusted anyone.

"Matte, Sakura-chan. You have someone living inside of you?" Naruto blinked.

I sweat dropped, that was all he got from everything I told him? I answered anyway. "Inner, she..."

**Awesome, amazing, great, powerful the bestest smartest person to ever grace a mind...**

"Annoying."

**HEY.**

I giggled a little at her.

_You know I love you Inner._

"She's talking to you now?" I was surprised, I must have said that out loud, it was also surprising that Sasuke that asked. I didn't answer Inner out loud much, when I was young I'd answer her out loud all the time, I learnt to talk to her in my head but every now and then I slipped.

I nodded.

"What is she saying?" He asked curiously

**Oh my Kami. Sasuke-kun is asking about me. Tell him how hot he makes me. No tell him that I'm in love with him. No, tell him to take off his shirt. **Inner was drooling again.

_I'm not telling him that._

"**_SASUKE-KUN, TAKE OFF YOUR SHIRT._**" I slapped a hand over my mouth turning red.

_INNER. Don't do that._

"I'm sorry, she can take control sometimes. She does it a lot." I apologised still red.

Sasuke was staring at me, it looked like he was trying to suppress a glare.

"Ne ne Sakura-chan. Does that mean that only she likes teme?" Naruto said loudly.

I was shocked by the statement, I knew Inner really likes- **Loves!** -Sasuke. I carried on my thoughts ignoring her interruption. But so did I. I mean we were the same person, of course we'd like the same things.

**That's not really true, I really like our hair long and you always liked it short, I mean before me you wore a pixie cut. Yuck.** Inner crinkled her nose.

"I don't know Naruto. I'd never really thought about it, I just assumed that she was more open with our feelings." I finally answered.

It was quiet for a long time. It was probably not the answer Naruto was looking for, Sasuke hadn't spoken after he asked about Inner. And Inner was trying to paste Sasuke's face on Haku's body. Sakura herself was lost in thought. Could she really like Sasuke? She thought about him at the academy, he never talked to her, he ignored her completely unless he was glaring at her. She remembered screaming and feeling so happy he was looking, but there was something else, a feeling of...sadness? She also remembered sighing in exasperation, because, Inner always got out of hand with Sasuke around. It hit her, Inner liked Sasuke.

_Then who do I like?_

**You like Sasuke too. **Inner said.

_No. You do._

**Yeah, I like him cause he's hot and cool, also if we get married to him we total beat pig.**

I rolled my eyes.

**You like him cause he's smart and even though almost every time he talks to us, he insults us, he still acts nice.**

I thought about what she said, Sasuke was a gentleman even though he was cold, he did many things for her, from protecting her to helping her when they were on D-rank missions. He did it in such a subtle and nonchalant way that made it seem as if he hadn't meant to help her. But was that enough to claim to have feelings for him.

**No one said you loved him outter. I love him though, he's so hot.** Inner sighed fanning herself.

Inner was right.

**I always am.**

"Hey Sakura-chan." I turned to Naruto when he broke the silence. "Will you show us Haku's jutsu?"

I vaguely saw Sasuke's head turn in our direction, I thought about it, my chakra reserve was fulling fast and it was getting uncomfortable again. I needed to burn some chakra anyway, I'd planned to before I went back to Tazuna's anyway, they could watch.

"Hai." I said.

"Awesome, hey guys, race you down. Loser buys at Ichiraku's when we get home." Naruto got up and started to run down the tree. "Eat my dust teme."

"Dobe." He replied but still Sasuke was soon running down the tree too.

**They forgot us! Let's go outter, we'll make sure to win so we can laugh in their faces. Shannaro. **Inner then took a step,

Right. Off. The. Edge.

We started falling, I bit back a scream. On instinct chakra shot through me, everything slowed down and I pumped chakra into my legs. I shot straight toward the ground in seconds. I'd braced my legs and chakra. As if I'd done so before, I flipped a few feet from the ground, it helped slow my decent and I landed lightly on the ground. It shocked me that I didn't die and I fell to one knee.

The next thing I knew Sasuke was there and so was Naruto a second later.

"Sakura-chan? Are you alright?" Naruto looked really worried.

I smiled, "of course I'm fine. I won too." My smile turned into a grin which spread to Naruto's face.

"Tha't was amazing Sakura-chan." Naruto went on and on about if, Sasuke, after seeing that I was fine, stood and began to walk in the direction of the lake.

"Why are you happy dobe. You lost." Naruto stopped talking and grinning, I giggle getting up and following Sasuke.

"HEY. Wait up." Naruto yelled when he realised that he was being left behind. When he did catch up he whined about losing.

I smiled at my teammates. Maybe, just maybe, everything would be alright.

* * *

**Okay, tell me what you think. This idea came from a little line in Riddick, the one that said, "You keep what you kill. That is the Necromonce way." (or something like that. Don't know how to spell necromoce though. did I spell it right?) Anyway I thought, man that would be a great idea as a kekei genkai. And that's how Taking Bloodlines was born. I will update this story once a week. It'll be hard cause inspiration strikes me at the most random moments. Also, there is a poll for this story. Who do you want Sakura paired with?**

**That's all for now. R&R.**


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Kishimoto owns Naruto. Angellwriter owns Plot.**

* * *

Things had changed between team seven. Naruto and Sasuke still fought, Kakashi was still a late pervert and Sakura still often had fangirl moments over Sasuke. But it was different, Instead of waiting for their sensei often team seven trained together. Sakura was still getting use to having all this chakra and how it refilled so fast, it was often uncomfortable and she had to train a lot more to get rid of it. Sasuke and Naruto couldn't pass up the opportunity to train and they joined her. They also trained together after Kakashi disappeared. Sometimes Naruto would drag them to Ichiraku's to eat. They were closer, and Inner had stopped distracting her with so much, she was still trying to sort out Sakura's mind, incorporating a whole other life of memories was a hard thing to do. But Sakura was thankful, Sasuke was less on edge around her now. It made their teamwork better. Sakura had also become a bigger member of team seven, no longer did she sit on the sidelines, watching the boys spar, she now got to spar with them. She was far off their level still, her body couldn't keep up and even though she now had many new moves and jutsu's, she still didn't have the body to do it. Still, with some of Haku's jutsu's she was able to stay in the spar for a while.

Still Sakura's burn to be a good ninja wasn't really bright. Sure, she trained hard now, but she had no real dream, no goal. After finding out that her feeling for Sasuke wasn't as deep as Inner made her believe, she didn't know what to do with herself. She'd only joined the academy to be closer to Ino, her best friend at the time, she remembered stay for Sasuke, and so Ino didn't win. But she never really had a goal besides that. She'd had more time to think about it and still she didn't know why she wanted to be a ninja, the death, the sorrow, the deceit. What was the good thing about being a ninja?

Sakura thought of what happened when she got back, her meeting with the Hokage.

Both Sasuke and Naruto had been ushered out, much to Naruto's protest, by Kakashi and now they only people that stood in the room with the third Hokage and Sakura.

The Hokage smiled warmly at her and gustured to one of the seats in front of his desk. She nervously walked over and sat down. She'd never been in the Hokages personal office, gennin were given their missions in a different room, no one over chunnin got to step in this room.

"So Sakura-san, Tell me what happened." His voice was warm, comforting and the tension in her back melted away, she relaxed and started to tell him, she had told this story twice now and each time it sounded more absurd. She never told him about Inner either. It was not like she didn't trust Kakashi-sensei or the Hokage, but adults tended to think she was crazy, her parents had sent her to a shrink when she had told them. After that she had never told another adult and instead she kept Inner to herself, lying and telling them that she went away, that she was just an imaginary friend. Also she really trusted her two, yes even Naruto, teammates more.

He nodded, he looked like he was choosing his words very carefully.

"It sounds as if you have a kekei genkai. A harsh one at that. I suspect that had it not been for Haku's strange kekei genkai, you might have cause some damage to your brain." The Hokage said before taking a deep breath in, as if preparing himself. "Did your parents ever tell you about this?"

"My parents are civilians. I'm the first ninja from both sides the family." Sakura said.

The Hokage nodded slowly, "Have you ever considered that you maybe...adopted."

I froze, it couldn't be, I had the same pink hair as my father, just a little darker, but it was still pink. Her eyes were green too, the same shape and shade as her mothers. And there was no denying that she had her grandmothers face. Their was no doubt, she was a hundred percent Haruno.

"No. There is no chance that I'm adopted Hokage-sama." I said sternly.

The Hokage nodded but the way he hesitated in puffing out his smoke was enough proof that he thought I was simply in denial.

"The Haruno clan has been a civilian clan for generations." I said. "As long as we could my family can be traced there has not been one ninja, not even a gennin level. I'd asked when I first decided to become a ninja."

"Well that is interesting. Maybe..." He trailed off. "Maybe their is something in th Hokage library about this. I'll have to check." He chanced a look at the paperwork piled high on his desk. "I don't think that I have the time though." He looked thoughtful for a minute before his gaze turned back to me.

"Sakura, did you know about the Hokage library?" The third sat back taking a long drag of his pipe.

"It's a very secret library that only is available to the Hokage and, if he chooses it, his most loyal ninja." It was the text book answer and it was all I knew.

"Yes." The Sandaime nodded. "I have only ever given four people permission to access it, my students, also known as the Sannin, and the Yondaime Hokage."

I nodded in confusion, what did this have to do with my kekei genkai? What did it have to. Do with me.

"Today." He carried on, smoke falling from his lips as he spoke, "I give you, Haruno Sakura permission to enter the Hokage library and read the scrolls inside."

I was shocked, completely so. I was sure that it took ninja years of loyal service to the Hokage to get to even know where the location of the Hokage library was. It had taken even the Sannin, his students, ten years for him to trust them enough to give them access to the library. The fourth Hokage wasn't even given permission until a week before being instated into the Hokage seat. And here she was, a little pink haired girl, not even that serious about being a ninja in the first place, having permission to one of the most powerful and dangerous jutsus and knowledge. The Hokage kept past mission scrolls in that library, secret missions that had been classed up to S. And she was given permission to read all that, as just a gennin who had ben so for little over a month. She shook her head in disbelief.

"But Hokage-sama..." Sakura didn't know what else to say, I can't accept that? Why are you letting me have access to that place? ARE YOU CRAZY? She truly didn't know what to say.

**Say thank you Sandaime.** Inner supplied.

"There is no one I trust more than yourself to keep your secret. It what you could do were to get out, you would be in danger." Her Kage went on. "You must learn more about your kekei genkai and must do so in secret. The Hokage library is both secret and knowledgeable. I do not have time to look through it and I do not trust anyone enough to be certain they would not use this knowledge on you."

"What about Kakashi-sensei?" I asked.

His expression turned sad. "Kakashi already has access to the library but he does not go in there. It brings back bad memories." He told me.

I was bursting, I wanted to ask more about the library and more about Kakashi-sensei. Why did he had access to the library if the third had only given it to four people. He must have gotten his permission from the Fourth. I didn't know that Kakashi-sensei knew the Fourth that well. I wonder just how close they were. I didn't know very much about my sensei, His introduction was laughable, all I was told was his name and what I had picked up being his student wasn't much. I didn't know what to think, what to do or even what to say.

I didn't have to worry though because at that moment the Sandaime spoke again. "I have much paper work to do but in a week I want you to come back and I will show you the library."

I nodded still stunned and left with a respectful bow.

It had now been a week since then and Sakura was walking up to the Hokage tower to be shown the mysterious and very secret Hokage library. She took deep breaths as he slowly walked towards the looming tower. She was both very excited and nervous. She would be one of the very few people to have the privilege to enter that library. Her thoughts felt like a broken record, going round and round about the same thing. She still didn't really get why she was allowed this honor.

**Because were awesome, Shannaro. **Inner pumped her fist.

There must have been a hundred more loyal, powerful, smart and dedicated shinobi that would have loved the chance to have the Hokage library to themselves. To read to their hearts content.

**Yeah but we do have more invested, if they fail the worst thing that could happen to them is that...I don't know get demoted? if we fail we could die or something.** Inner shrugged.

_That is so reassuring inner._ I though sarcastically, then added worriedly. _Do you really think we could die._

**Well eventually we will, but from our awesome kekei genkai, the chances are it won't, I mean it hasn't so far. Were just as normal as before except we're more of a ice bitch. **Inner started to laugh hysterically. **Get it. Ice bitch, cause we can control ice.**

_I got it, I just thought it wasn't all that funny._

**You suck, I'm going back to sorting through Haku's memories, I'm I've done most of them, I through a lot out but I kept some of it. Only the useful stuff.** She waved a picture of a half naked Haku looking at himself in the mirror.

_Inner. That's not useful. _I scowled.

**Yes it is. It would be very useful on cold nights.** I cringed as she kissed the picture and hugged it to her chest.

"Ah Sakura-san. The Hokage-sama is waiting in his office for you." I was shocked when I heard the Sandaime's secretary addressing me. I didn't even notice that I was already in the Hokage tower.

I nodded to her and turned around, walking to the doors of the Hokage's personal office. There were two ANBU standing outside. They didn't even blink, not that I would have noticed they were wearing masks, when I approached the door and knocked loudly.

"Enter." The warm voice of the Sandaime was heard clearly through the double doors. I took a deep breath before opening the door.

"Hokage-sama." My voice was abnormally high as I shut the door behind me and stepped into the office. When I got to the middle of the room I bowed to him, after a three second beat I rose and looked at him. He was sitting at the desk, a mountain of paperwork surrounding him. He looked tired, like he had not slept in a few days, still he smiled at me and rose from behind his desk.

I noticed that it was just us in the room, The ANBU that usually never left his side were absent.

_They must have been the one standing outside_, I thought.

**You don't say. **Inner said sarcastically.

Ignoring Inner in favour of following the Hokage's command to follow him.

**Is it just me or is the Hokage robes look slightly like a nuns uniform.**

_Yes, its just you._

**What wrong with you, did you finally realise that I'm so much better than you and you should become my inner?**

_Inner, go back to work, our brain isn't going to sort itself out._

**It should, maybe we could train it to do that automatically.**

_Our brain isn't a dog, it can't do tricks._

**Can I get a dog? I get lonely in here.**

I ignored her stupid question- **Hey!** -and concentrated more on the Hokage. He lead me over to a library, it was connected to his office. There was no tick, no seals, nothing protecting this room but a thin, wooden door.

**Maybe it's one of those, hidden in plain sight thing.** Inner said looking sceptically at the library through my own eyes, as if expecting a trap to be sprung at any moment.

The Hokage walked past all the books and into another door that led out of the library. I followed silently.

**That old mans lost it, why are we leaving the library?** Inner said shaking her head in sympathy. **Those poor villagers. Can't believe that this guy is the most powerful man in the village.**

Again I ignored her as I exited the library too.

The next room we entered was plain, it was a circular room that had a table in it with five chairs. The room was bare besides that. From the plain cream walls to the light grey carpet. It was dull and I would have fallen to sleep if I had to spend very long in here.

**If I spent very long in here I'd kill someone...probably myself. **Inner turned her nose up in the direction of the dull decorations

"Um...If you don't mind me asking Hokage-sama. Why are we in here?" I asked nervously.

He chuckled. "I apologise Sakura-san, Both my office and library dulls chakra, it's not noticable until you use a very high level jutsu." He explained. "Its a special barrier to help to protect the Hokage. Only the Hokage can get around it." I tilted my head, why were we here than. "We are here because you must do a high level jutsu." I almost took a step back in shock, I didn't know any high level jutsus, even with the jutsu's I had attained from Haku, I still didn't really have high level jutsus. As flash as demon ice mirrors were they weren't that much of a high level jutsu. It just seemed like it but anyone with the kekei genkai Haku had could do it. It was a upper mid level jutsu at best.

The Hokage caught the panicked look on my face and quickly explained. "It's just a summoning, I'll tell you what you have to do." He smiled at me, I nodded, relieved that I wouldn't have to pull a high level jutsu out of nowhere.

It took me a half an hour to get everything perfect. The sandaime was a patient man, he taught me each sign and told me what to do. He also told me the warning, instructed me on what to expect and what to make sure I did and didn't do. Soon he pulled out a scroll and laid it out, it had a bunch of seals drawn on it. I recognised none, fuinnjutsu was something that was not taught at the academy. It was not found in the limited scrolls in the library and the only way to learn was to be taught by a fuinnjutsu master. Though it was hard to find one, there wasn't many of them, and they tended not to broadcast their knowledge of seals.

The sandaime nodded at me, telling me to start doing the signs. I did as he asked, doing the 24 hand signs that I was just taught.

...ox, boar, rabbit! I finished, and slammed my hand on the seal pouring my chakra into the seal.

I felt as if I was being pulled, no sucked, into the scroll, I felt as if I was being stretched out, almost painfully so. I had to concentrate hard to not curl into myself and cut off my flow of chakra. The Hokage said that it would hurt more, take longer, if I cut off my chakra, the more I poured in the faster it would be over. So with that in mind I pushed all the chakra I could spare into the seal. The next thing I knew everything stopped and I was in a large circular room. It had walls that were taller then that Hokage monuments and they were covered with books and scrolls. The room was about 20 metres apart, there were no doors and no windows, there was, however, a hole in the roof that looked like the only exit.

I only got a few seconds to study the room before the Hokage was standing next to me.

"You did very well Sakura, not even I can get through the seal that quick." The Hokage smiled down and me. I found myself blushing at the compliment, it was not every day that the most powerful person in the village gave you a compliment. I savoured the moment.

**Oh yeah, we are awesome. Shannaro.** Inner was doing a happy dance.

"Hiruzen-san, it is nice tooo see you again. Whooo is this?" The voice was strange, it rolled its o's as if it was imitating an owl. I was surprised, I hadn't noticed anyone here, It confused me slightly too. I had thought that no one knew about the Hokage library but clearly there was someone here. I turned about and my jaw almost dropped in shock. There, standing in front of me was a giant white owl.

It was easily twice times my size, its feathers were all white, not a speck of colour. In fact, the only color that was on him was his eyes they were a glissining gold color that reminded her of a sunrise.

"Kashikoi, this is Sakura, shes been given access to the Hokage library. Sakura, this is Kashikoi, he is the guardian of the Hokage library." The sandaime explained.

I bowed slightly, a few beats too late but at least I hadn't just stood there with my mouth open.

"It's nice to meet you Kashikoi-sama." I said unsure of what kind of suffix to use, but if he was first name bases with the Hokage, he deserved the title.

"It is fine to simply call me Kashikoi." He said. "I must go, it was nice seeing you Hiruzen, nice to meet you Sakura. If you need anything, just give a hoooooot." He said before he spread his wings and flew off.

**AWESOME. Forget a dog, I want him. HEY BIREDY COME BACK.** Inner was flapping her arms trying to follow Kashikoi.

I, yet again, ignored her. "Hokage-sama?" I turned to him. "I thought that the Hokage library was underground."

"Ah, yes it was. However it had to be moved, it was infiltrated during the third shinobi war. Kashikoi offered to gaurd it in his summoning island. This is Fukurō island, the home of owl summonings."

"But Hokage-sama, if Kashikoi is a summoning animal, who watches the library when he's summoned?" I asked curiously.

"Kashikoi is very old and has not been summoned in a very long time, he may not show it, but Kashikoi is over three hundred years old." Sandaime-sama said.

I gapped at him, over three hundred? Was that even possible?

"Why has no one summoned him? Is it because he is too old?" I found myself asking.

The Hokage shook his head. "No, it's because, unlike most summoning animals Kashikoi and even some other owls, can choose whether they want to answer a summoning. Kashikoi doesn't like to answer strangers who would simply ask him to do something meaningless. He once told me that he would only answer the call of a pure-hearted person who truly needs him. Everyone else can just settle for someone else."

"But how would he know if the person is pure-hearted and truly needs him?" I asked.

"He never told me, all he said was that an owl knows which hoot is bird and which is hunter." The Hokage smiled one last time before bidding me farewell again.

"Have fun searching Sakura, I'll be back in a few hours. I'll teach you how to return then."

"Goodbye Hokage-sama." And then he pulled out another scroll and did more hand signs and slamming his hand on the scroll. He was soon gone and I was alone in the large library. I looked around at the giant walls with millions of books and scrolls.

**We'll be here awhile. **Inner said wide eyed.

_We'll be here for more than awhile._ I replied.

* * *

**Okay I totally did this in like four hours. Woohoo, just finished it now. Tell me what you think. Also, what do you think about Kashikoi? **

**See you next week. ****R&R.**


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I am not Kishimoto, so I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

**Your stamina _sucks. _**

Inner commented as I lay on the ground panting. I had only done three laps around Konoha before I collapsed. It really was pathetic, both Naruto and Sasuke was done five in this time and, though they were panting, they were still running at full speed.

_Our stamina you mean. _I corrected tiredly.

**Um, no. I meant what I said, I refuse to say that we share anything until you are less pathetic. **She sneered slightly.

"Bitch." I muttered out loud.

"Ne Sakura-chan?" I hadn't realized that both Sasuke and Naruto had finished their fifth lap and had stopped above me.

"Stamina sucks...Inner...Bitch..." I panted out, not caring if I made no sense.

"Hn. You really do suck." Sasuke commented.

If I had the energy I would glare at him, instead I just laid there, panting pathetically.

**Sasuke-kun!** Inners shrill voice broke through the haze of tiredness. Suddenly I felt like I no longer had control of my body. I shot up. Standing upright, no longer panting.

"Sasuke-kun!" I heard my, Inners, voice. I cringed, not again.

"It's so nice to be out to see you. You look so good. Do you want to go on a date?" I was bounching on the balls of my feet, I felt disconnected. I felt myself doing these things but I didn't as if I was the one telling my body to do these things. Inner was in control.

"Tch. I don't have time for you games Sakura-"

"Inner. But you can call me Sakura. Or Inner Sakura. Or just Inner...or the love of your life. Anything is fine with me Sasuke-kun." I briefly saw a flash of shook flicker onto Sasuke, and Naruto's, face.

I could see Sasuke mentally shaking his head. "Hn. Whatever." He turned and ran off, continuing his run.

"I'll run with you Sasuke-kun." I felt my muscle flexing and stretching as I started to run faster than ever before. Fast enough that I now was running next to Sasuke, I also heard the pattering of steps signaling that Naruto was running with us too.

"So Sasuke-kun, tell me more about yourself. What do you use in your hair that makes it stick up? Its so sexy." I felt the sigh escape me, but it was inaudible.

Sasuke ignored us and started to run fast. Inner ran just as fast.

"Hey Sasuke-kun. You like me better than Sakura right? I mean she's such a prude, she thinks its wrong to stare at Haku's ripped abs and strip all potentially hot guys. Weird girl." I felt my head shake.

Sasuke started running even faster.

_Inner! Stop this, we had a deal, no trying to take control while I'm training._

"But Outter-chan." Inner whined out loud so the boys heard.

_Your embarrassing us. You don't want to embarrass us in front of Sasuke do you?_ Guiltily, I played with her weakness, she knew what I was doing but it did not make my words any truer.

"Fine Outter." Inner sighed. "Bye, bye Sasuke-kun, Naruto-baka."

With that Inner retracted inside of my mind and I fell mid-step.

**Serves you right.** Inner huffed.

_You are aware that this just embarrassed us in front of the boys. The thing you didn't want to happen._ I pointed out sitting up. It hurt to move, but I wasn't going to lay on my face.

Inner was on a ranting rampage, she was now screaming and it was hard, but I pushed her further from the forefront of my mind.

"Uh, Inner-chan?" Naruto asked confused.

"No." I huffed out. "It's me."

"Good." Naruto sighed. "I don't like her that much."

I glared, we were the same person.

Naruto laughed nervously. "Um, I'll just, carry on with my run." And then he took off.

I sighed, I think I could do another lap, but what was the point?

"Hn. Your weaker than your other person." Sasuke said causally.

I looked up and I really did glare.

"Inner is not stronger, she's nothing but a crazy, perverted fangirl who only was able to keep up because she wanted to stalk you." I huffed, I was still anger at her, she had broken our agreement, even if it was only for ten minutes.

"Still, she kept up." He said facing away.

"For ten minutes." I almost screeched standing up in anger.

"Longer than you kept up." I heard him say.

Shocked, I stayed silent, I didn't know what to say, what to think. I couldn't believe that Sasuke would say that a fangirl, one of the craziest of the lot, was better then me. Sure we were the same person, but we were different.

"Hn. I don't have time for this." And he took off running again.

"Oh no you don't." And with that I took of running too, keeping up with Sasuke, I had to push myself, and send chakra into all my muscles, pumping them and moving as fast as I could. I was sure for a second I saw a smirk on Sasuke's face.

I glared ahead before pushing myself slightly ahead of Sasuke, I think I found my point.

* * *

I slammed the book closed. This one had nothing either. It had only been a week since I had first entered the Hokage library. I knew that it would take a while for me to find something but this was just outrageous. The Sandaime had shown me how to get to and from the library, had given me my own scrolls, ones that only responded to my chakra. though even if someone were to steal it, it would be useless to them. That and, even if they found a way, Kashikoi would stop them from touching even one book or scrolls.

I had been searching in the ninja clan archives for anything to do with a kekei genkai that takes others. There had been no luck. At first I had started with checking through the Haruno clan records, there were none, I'd checked for my mothers maiden name and every other name Haruno's have had. It was useless I dubbed after the first day of finding nothing. Now though, I just sorted through all the clan records, looking for any description on a kekei genkai that was the same or similar to mine. There was none.

I found a few scrolls on physical mutation found in the Kamereon though, it was a gruesome kekei genkai that let them change temperately into any person who's flesh they had eaten. It also mentioned that if they ate the heart, the change was permanent.

**Yeah, our is not like that, we got everything from Haku but his physical form. And I'm pretty sure we didn't eat his anything, but if we had to I have a few ideas on where to start.** Inner pulled out a life size poster and stick. She also was now wearing glasses and her hair was in a bun. **Now the first place I'd eat would be-**

_Shut up Inner. You are such a pervert, you would be perfect with Kakashi-sensei._ I shook my head in disgust.

**Well if he's hot, I'm totally there.** Inner said now with a picture of our sensei. **In fact, I could totally see hotness under all those clothes. Do you think he'd strip for me.**

I scoffed. _I thought Sasuke was the love of your life._

**Oh he is, I'm trying to find you a man so me a Sasuke-kun can be together. I don't want you to feel like a third wheel.** She nodded and stroked the sides of my mind 'soothingly'.

_You are aware that we can't separate, that we are one person._

**Correction sweet naive outter-chan, we are one _body_. **She was still stroking the walls of my mind.

I huffed, _don't you have memories to sort through?_

Inner slumped, **its so boring, I sorted all the good juicy bits and now all that's left is the boring stuff. Plus, looking at him naked at six makes me feel like a pedophile.**

_Ew. I did not need to know that Inner. Just throw them out._

**I was. Did you really think I would keep them, that's pedo-stalker material.** She flicked her hair and held up her nose in a snooty pose.

So you'd rather be a regular stalker? I shook my head. That's not really that much better Inner.

**Yes but at least its legal.** She shrugged, not at all looking embarrassed.

_Barely. It's also unethical._ I shook my head in disbelief.

**Don't you have research to do?** Inner relied mockingly.

I snorted at my own words turned against me. _That was the last book on kekei genkai's._

**Okay, how about checking out family jutsu's? **Inner said uncertainly.

_Inner, we didn't do a jutsu, all we really did was throw a kunai. _I sighed. _It really wasn't all that great and I don't even understand it._

**I know.** Inner shot, a light bulb appearing over her head. **Why don't we ask Kashikoi, He probably knows this library better than anyone.**

_I don't know how he could, he only guards the library._ I told her.

**Yeah but the worst he could say is he has no clue and your personality is horrible and should get a new one, i.e. Me.** Inner then dropped into her fangirl mode. **Then me and Sasuke-kun would be together without you getting in the way.**

I shook my head, Inner was unbelievable.

**Thank you.**

Ignoring her I stood up, I'd take Inners advise **-smart move-** and ask Kashikoi if he knew of any other scrolls that had kekei genkai in it.

Kashikoi wasn't currently in the library, he never was when I was here. The only times I saw him was when I had just arrived and when I was leaving. He would just turn up when I was leaving, I didn't call him, he was just suddenly there. I didn't know how he did it, maybe he felt pulsating aura of defeat that rolled off me in waves just before I got up to leave.

**Or maybe, dear Outter-baka, Kashikoi is an owl and can hear you getting up and putting your books away as you complain about not finding anything and having to leave empty handed again.**

"Kashikoi-san?" I called out.

I saw the great white owl that was Kashikoi, flying down, when he landed in front of me I took a big breath before explaining what I needed.

Once I explained, Kashikoi had said that he had not read any of the books or scrolls in this library.

_See._ I told my Inner.

But he knew of someone who had and would know where such a book was if there was one.

**Ha!** Inner replied.

I thanked him as he left to talk to them, they, who've they were, did not really like strangers.

**I can't understand that. We are a delightful person. **Inner shook her head.

_Yes._ I agreed with her sarcastically. _We are not strange at all. _

Kashikoi came back with a small book in his beak and dropped it on the table.

"This is the oooonly thing the library has ooon anything similar tooo what you wish to find." He hooted out. "I hoope yoou find what yoour looking for."

"Thank you very much Kashikoi-san." I said with a grin.

He nodded and flew away again, telling me that he would return it before I left.

I looked down at the book in my hands. It was plain black leather. It was small and the only words on it was the faded red title on the front. It took me a little while to make out the words.

_Shi no kettō._

**Death's bloodline?** Inner repeated questioningly. **What does this have to do with anything?**

_I don't know Inner, lets find out._ I relied opening the book. I skimmed the first few words. _It's a fairy tale._

**Kashikoi gave us a fairy tale?** Inner asked scratching her head.

_It may have been a mistake._ I said, ready to call Kashikoi back to ask for the real book.

**Let's read it first, it's been so long since we read anything beside kekei genkai records and old memories.** Inner was now sitting, legs crossed, bouncing slightly.** Story, story, story.** She chanted.

_Fine I huffed before reading._

_Once upon a time-_

**Very original start.**

_Inner shut up or I won't read it._ I started again when she was quiet.

_Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful fair maiden who was often mistaken for an angel. Her hair was white, as was her skin and she even dressed in a flowing white kimono. Everyone imagined that her eyes, too, were white but no one was ever close enough to see them. The villagers all called her the white angel._

_The white angel lived all alone on the top of a hill outside the village, she never ventured near and the village and only was ever seen on top of her hill, which was nicknamed heaven's hill, for the angel at the top._

_She lived a very long time, people said that time never passed up on heaven's hill, not for its white angel. Others said that an angel could never die. Most though, simply thought that even death could not kill the beauty that was the white angel._

_Death soon heard of this woman who was so beautiful that people thought he couldn't kill. Angered he went in search of her, death escaped no one and no one escaped Death. So Death went to the village, he walked right through the middle of the town, scythe in hand and hood low. The people watched as he walked towards heaven's hill, the people cried as they realized that the angel would soon die._

_Death was walking up the hill, it was greener and more alive then here, Death hated it. But he tracked to the top, the white angel was not in her cottage, death went behind the cottage and stepped into the garden. The back yard was a beautiful place with bright flowers of all colours, shapes and sizes. It was truly a garden of Eden. It burned Death to even step foot in it, but he had a mission, one he would not stray from._

_Further into the garden he walked, it was large and it took him a few minutes to see her. She was sitting with her back to him, at first he only saw white and thought her to e simply another strange flower, but as he drew nearer he saw the distinctive outline of a person._

_Death walked forward, he heard her voice singing._

_"I want you. To take me in you arms. When love and death embrace. I love you."_

_She sung so beautifully, and Death felt a strange feeling._

_Then she stood up and started to walk into the house, still singing. Death caught her face and almost fell, she was beautiful, more so up close, everything about her seemed so untainted, from her colourless hair and skin to those crystal eyes that held a milky sheen that said she was blind. Death stared at her as she left and realized that he did not want to kill her. Death wanted to touch her, but not the way he touched everyone else, not in a dying touch. He wanted to stroke her cheek without it turning cold and hard under his touch. For once Death wanted something more then his namesake, more then death. He wanted love, the love of an angel. __But Death could not touch her or he would taint her and she will forever be shrouded in darkness, in death. His want, no, his need for her was so powerful that Death left, in search for a way to be with the white angel._

_Death searched for weeks, walking the world to find someone to take the mantle of Death, someone who could use his powers rightly. It was on the side of the road that he met a woman, she was old and looked sickly, Death was about to touch her, to end her life and take her soul when she spoke._

_"You want to no longer be Death." Her voice was croaky, similar to a frogs. "I will help but I must ask something of you."_

_Desperate, Death nodded, he'd do anything to go back and be able to touch the angel with out tainting her._

_"I only ask two things, first, I have a grandchild, he is very sick, I want you to make sure that he does not die from that sickness." Death nodded, agreeing with this term. "The other is simple, I want you to touch me, before you are a man, I want to die." Again this was a simple decision, he was going to touch her anyway. He nodded._

_"The I will tell you how you can become a man." She croaked. "The only way to counter Death is live, if you find a pregnant woman who is giving birth and touch her, your powers would go to her child. He would become the new Death."_

_Death nodded as he touched the woman, taking her soul. Though, instead of taking her to his domain he took her to her grandson, he then sealed her into him. Making the boy well and letting the old lady protect him, a bonus for the gift she had given him. Then Death when to a nearby house, inside was a pregnant woman, she was not in labour but he would wait. He stayed with her for two weeks, not letting her see him but still protecting both her and the new Death. _

_When she finally went into labour and Death touched her, something unexpected happened. Instead of becoming a man Death became a baby. He became the child whose mother he had just killed and he saw the child, standing above him, in a dark black cloak with a scythe in hand. The child was now Death and he was now the child. Death was angry, he couldn't go to the angel looking like this. And that child didn't know how to be death, he had planned on showing him the ropes before leaving to go be with the white angel. But he could not do that now...Death had been tricked._

_And as the new Death disappeared, so did the memories of the originals days as Death. He would never see the white angel again, but that was okay, because he didn't remember who she was._

**Wait. I don't get how this has anything to do with us, or anything to do with anything. In fact this story sucked.** Inner looked disbelieving at the book from he spot in my mind.

_Shut up Inner._ I told her. _There's more._ I continued to read without her interruption.

_Though the old Death did not remember his past, he still held some of the power of death. It lingered in him and he often felt the repressing need to kill. This is what lead him to the s__hinobi life. With the lust to kill with a touch, he became a ninja. With no training and no jutsu's he managed to kill everyone who stood in his way. Ironically they nicknamed him 'The Reaper'._

_The Reaper lived a long, bloodied, life. But as he grew older he wanted more, something else that lingered from his past made itself present. The want of love. One day, he met a woman who was powerful, so powerful in fact that she survived a battle with him. Impressed, The Reaper took her as a bride._

_They settled down and had three children, The Reaper and his bride unknowingly passing on their power to their children. The bride died first, right beside The Reaper and for the first time since he was born, he saw Death. The new Death looked at him as he took The Reaper's wife's soul, and he remembered. For the first time in his life he remembered the white angel and his past, his past as Death. This time though, as Death disappeared The Reaper did not forget, though he wished he had._

_The Reaper's two sons followed their parents and became ninja. The oldest son was drove by the death of a friend, he would never let anyone hurt the people he loved again. So he trained to protect them. However, he was not good enough and in a battle he perished. The second was drove by power, though a strange thing happened when he killed for the first time. He absorbed the life force and soul of his victim, almost dying in the process. His mortal body could not hold the soul of others like Death could. But he survived, he was, after all, Deaths son._

_Overwhelmed by the power he possessed he killed again, taking another soul. Again it almost killed him, but he was so much stronger now, he had so much power, he was unstoppable. He killed again and again, each time invading death only slightly. He became so strong. But this strength did not come free. Killing and taking the souls of his victims had a effect on him. The souls altered him, each one changing him, most were good ninja and he found himself yearning to protect. But that was not the only downfall, there was also him brain, so overloaded with the memories of the souls he held that his brain started to burst blood vessels. He was dying. His brain could not handle all of the things he took by killing and soon his brain bleed out._

_Seeing the fate on both his sons who had become ninja and the knowledge of what was happening The Reaper went in search of the little boy he had saved from dying. He had attached the old woman's soul to him and he wanted answers. He wanted to know hat he could do to save his last child._

_The Reaper was surprised to find a young man. The boy looked like he had stopped aging at the age of twenty-five, but he knew that this was the same boy. It had to be, the woman stood next to him. He was, at first, s__hocked to find that he could see her but pushed it aside to question the spirit._

_"I knew you would come back to me." She still held that croaking voice. "I had hoped that when you touched me, you would send me on." _

_"A witch." The Reaper spoke. "That is what you are. Tell me how to protect my last kin."_

_"I will help but I ask something of you." She croaked the words she had said to him the first time they had meet._

_Desperate, he nodded._

_"I will cast a spell to protect your last child and your whole line. But you must take me to Death's domain. It is time for me to move on."_

_"I am no longer Death." The Reaper said._

_"But those dark powers linger in you. All you have to do is take my soul into your body and when you die, so will I." She said._

_He agreed, anything to protect his child. Then, he touched the transparent soul of the old woman and drew her soul into himself. They travelled back to The Reapers home and the witch casted her spell, however after the spell was cast The Reaper saw, for the third time, Death. For a worrying minute he had thought he had been tricked again and the woman had just killed off his child. However Death had not come for that, he had come to pick up The Reaper and the witch._

_The witch had done it again, she had tricked him, he had many years to live but that spell had cause for Death to come and take those years away. But, he thought as his soul was torn from his body, he had his revenge. No matter that he had been human for almost fifty years, he was still Death. So when he died the child's soul was freed from the duties of death and Death took his scythe back. Death took the old witch's soul and placed it back into her grandchild, promising that neither she, nor he, would ever know his domain._

_As for the youngest of Death's children. No one spoke of them, and to this day no one knows who carries Shi no kettō._

It was quiet for a few beats after I had finished reading.

**So, we are a descendant of Death? **Inner said, no longer sitting.

_Don't be silly Inner. Of course not. It's a fairy tale. Not real. _I scoffed. _Death is not a person. It is a state of being._

**Well how do you explain that middle kids kekei genkai, its so much like ours. It must be real.** Inner pointed out.

_Yeah, I'll give you that. But I think it was just two kekei genkai's mutating together. Most of the time it ends up being a failure but in some cases, like the Hyuuga's Byakugan, its successful. _I replied. _I don't believe the part about Death and the witch, I think it was put in just to make the story interesting, but I believe the rest._

**So what are we going to do now. We have nothing else but this 'fairy tale' to go on, and it's not like it even names anyone in this.** Inner fell to the ground of my mind and sighed.

_Ah, but that is where you are wrong, dear, sweet Inner. _I smirked.

**Nani?** She shot up. **What do we have?**

_We have a name. _I said dramatically.

Inner gave a confused look.

I relished in it before finally telling her. _All we have to do is find The Reaper._

* * *

**Really sorry it's late but my dads been in the hospital. He had a heart attack, this would have been updated yesterday but he had a relapse. I'm not sure when I'll be able to get the next chapter out. Anyway.**

**R&R.**


	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Naruto is a manga/anime owned by Kishimoto Masashi.**

* * *

The Hokage library was massive, full to the brim of information. There was information on nearly everything, from a genjutsu that showed someone their true desire, something that was lost to most. To a ninjutsu that controled the growth of hair, this one, she was slightly embarrassed to admit, she memorised.

What she needed, though, was the Hokage's bingo books. It did not take her long to find them either, they covered a good portion of one of the walls. The books themselves were sorted by date, which was simple enough, however, the inside of each bingo book was more frustrating.

In one of the books that she had picked up, the ninja was sorted by level of danger, A giant man was the first ninja in this book, he had a mean looking face with a scar running for the top of his cheekbone to his chin. His top lip pulled down into his bottom and, in the photo, he was grinning, showing his ugly brown and yellow teeth. There was a stamp over his face that said, 'flee on sight', he also had an outragous bounty for his head, lucky there was also a cross through his picture, saying that he was already dead. something she was thankful for, she did want to think that someone like him was in the world. The list of crimes he had to his name was both impressive and sickening.

The next few ninja held the same warning, until the last ninja who was a scrawny man that had a stamp on his photo that simply said, 'easy prey' with a bounty of 5 ryo. It was not at all surprising to see that his picture was crossed out.

**I'm pretty sure it was a pity bounty, maybe it was taken out by his mother or something. **Inner commented after she finished her laughing fit. **Man if we every get a single digit bounty I think I might just kill ourself.**

The bingo book I picked up after that one was sorted in a totally different way, it was sorted in alphabetical order, starting with a woman named, Ashinaka Aaina and ending at a person who was only referred to a Z, who had more unknown things about them then anyone Sakura had come across so far. There was no photo, no name and not even a gender, it even stated that it was unknown whether he was alive or not.

After that was a book sorted by age. The first person being a eighty-nine year old man and the last being a cute little four year old boy that had my heart aching to see a cross through his picture. He was dead.

Then was a book that held no photo's just names and, on rare occasions, brief descriptions of what they look like. In this book was both the biggest bounties and some of the smallest, it also had te most uncertain living statues'.

**Well that makes sense.** Inner nodded knowingly. **If you don't know what they look like, how can you be sure you got the right ninja?**

Sakura's thought she had found a winner when she found a bingo book sorted by nicknames. But the closest name to 'The Reaper' was 'The Ripper' who was a man who liked to tear people apart while they were alive. His bounty was not that high, it said that his bounty had not been claimed, but he was dead anyway.

She had even had to go through a few books that hadn't been sorted in anyway, and even more books was coated in blood. Even though she did not want to, she spend hours with these books too, trying to find anything on The Reaper.

Sakura sighed as she closed another book, this one was sorted by village. It had been so long since she found anything even remotely close to The Reaper and this one had names that was the most opposite name you could get, 'The Bunny'.

**That is such a stupid name.** Inner was laughing. **Oh no.** Inner continued in a mock scared voice. **Look out! it's...THE BUNNY.** Inner finished with a roar of laughter and I, too, found myself giggling slightly.

It was the shooting pain that stopped my laughter, I groaned, had it already been four hours? I stood up and put the books back where I had found them. I needed to go and release some more chakra.

I found these new restrictions hard, I trained everyday now, three times at least. This massive chakra was hard to handle, my coils, still, had not gotten use to so much chakra. Slowly, my coils were getting bigger, but not big enough and certainly not fast enough. I still had to continually release a giant amount to be comfortable. I trained as soon as I woke, often waking early just because I felt the pain in my coils. After an hour of training the most chakra eating jutsu's I had, I would eat breakfast and then shower before meeting with my team. Sometimes we would wait for Kakashi-sensei, but most times we would train, which was okay with me, my chakra would have grown to a slightly larger then comfortable level. When Kakashi, finally, turned up we would do missions, or train some more.

After chasing lost cats and bratty children alike, we would be dismissed and team seven would head to Ichiraku, the only one who ate most of the time was, of course, Naruto. occasionally Sasuke, Kakashi and I would order a bowl too, but mostly we brought lunch and ate it there. The owners were such nice people to let us eat there, but then again Naruto ordered so much that he could afford to have his seats taken for an hour a day. Sometimes we would train, yet again, but mostly we would go our own ways. I was sure that Sasuke trained more, I had a suspicion that Naruto did too, Kakashi, however, it was a mystery to her what he did or where he went.

As for Sakura? she spent the next four hours in the Hokage library, reading bingo books that dated anywhere in between the time of Konoha's creation to today. But it was around that fourth hour that she started to feel the burning in her coils that said she needed to expel some chakra. After training until her chakra was dangerously low, something she could do because she knew just the right amount you needed with out being liable to die. Plus, she made sure to not to deplete herself more then she had when training with Kakashi-sensei and her team. She would go home then, have dinner and be able to get six, sometimes, seven hours sleep, but still, every morning her burning coils would wake her up.

And it was getting worse too! Because she was getting better, she needed less and less chakra to achieve her higher jutsu's meaning that she had to use them more times. Now her high jutsu's used the same amount of chakra as some of her mid jutsu's. As great as it was for the development and familiarization of her jutsu's, it was terrible for her health. Not just her chakra coils were suffering, it took more work to get to a comfortable chakra depletion level, she spent more time training each day and got less sleep each night.

She now sported really attractive bags under her eyes and found herself having a little naps on the desk in the Hokage library. Not to mention how moody it made her, often she would go off at anyone for even the smallest things. No one was safe anymore, not even Sasuke. Inner was really mad the first time Sakura's moodiness was directed to him, but not even Inner could protect him from Sakura's anger.

**I still haven't forgiven you for that.** Inner turned her back to me, Huffing.

_Good. _I told her, a smirk on my face. _Because I'm not sorry._

Inner huffed again and started to ignore me, I smile, that worked for me, finally I'd get a little peace.

**HEY!**

I sighed, she lasted longer that I though she would.

Ignoring Inner's ranting about how she wasn't apreshiated and how she should get herself a new Outter, I finished packing away the books. Turning away from the shelf I found Kashikoi standing there, I smiled, already use to his sudden appearances. I told him I'd be back tomorrow, he nodded and said farewell as I pulled out my scroll and left.

Soon I was standing in the middle of my bedroom, the giant russet coloured shelves replaces by a small room with light pick walls. I put the scroll away and opened the window, I didn't really feel like running into my parents right now, my coils ached and all I wanted to do was release some chakra and go to sleep.

**Don't you think it's a little creepy that he's always there when we're about to leave?** Inner said, giving up on ignoring me.

_No. _I replied. _It would be strange if he _didn't_ see us off._

**Why? **Inner asked confused.

_Because, _I sighed tiredly, _the books and scrolls in the Hokage library are very dangerous and sensitive, if I were to take one out and it fall into the wrong hands...the results would be disastrous._

**Disastrous how? I mean I don't think that a few old bingo books would hurt anyone if someone saw them. **Inner commented. **Plus if we had a few we could read them at home or after training, or while waiting for Kakashi-sensei-baka-angelface-pervert.**

_That was a mouthful. _I thought passingly before answering her question with a sigh. _I don't know Inner, maybe someone sees someone they thought was dead is alive and then go on a killing rampage to find them. All I know is something bad would happen. But if the books and scrolls are safe in the Hokage library I know that Kashikoi would protect them and there's nothing to worry about._

**Fine. **Inner huffed before changing the subject. **You know, I still don't forgive you for yelling at my Sasuke-kun, what did he ever do to you? Sasuke-kun is nice, and hot, and strong, and sexy, and hot, and cute, and so hot. I mean some times I just feel the need to lick him, to see if he taste as good as he looks, I bet he tastes better. **Inner now was sucking on a giant Sasuke shaped lollipop.

I sighed as I entered the training ground assigned to team seven. I was surprised to see that there was someone else here. Sure this training ground was open for everyone on team seven at anytime of the day, but never had anyone been here at this time. It wasn't that late, not even dark yet, but still, it was around six and all the members of team seven were never here when she got here.

But right now she saw a figure standing at the furthest point in the training ground.

**SASUKE-KUN! **Inner screamed in my mind throwing her Sasuke shaped lollipop and running to the forefront of my mind, I flinched slightly.

_I don't think so Inner, _I thought back to her as we walked closer.

Finally I was in range to see the tall man with odd white hair.

**What is Kakashi doing here?** Inner asked, annoyed as she picked up her 'Sasu-pop' and started apologizing to it.

_I don't know,_ I replied walking further towards our sensei and ignoring Inners antics._ Let's see._

"Kakashi-sensei?" I asked, I knew it was him but that was all I was able to say, somehow it seemed rude to ask him what he was doing at here.

"Sakura." Kakashi turned and nodded to me.

I took in his appearance, beads of sweat were running down his forehead and soaking his mask, he had taken off his vest and long sleeve shirt. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt that had a neckline that went over his face, acting as his mask. He was still wearing his jounin pants and sandals.

**Oh my Sasuke-kun's abs. Kakashi-sensei is hot.** Inner was drooling over my sensei, her Sasu-pop forgotten. I blushed at some of the thoughts going on in her mind.

_Wait!_ I back tracked. _Sasuke's abs? _I questioned confusedly.

**We all have a right to worship anything we want.** Inner shrugged.

_Yes but most people believe in Kami or some other god. besides you've never even _seen_ Sasuke's abs. I almost shook my head, sometimes I questions my second personalities sanity levels._ I replied disbelievingly.

**Well, people haven't seen Kami and they still believe in him, the only difference is that I know, one day, I will see the yumminess that is Sasuke-kun's eight pack.** Inner was now swapping between drooling over our sensei who was standing in front of us, and daydreaming about Sasuke's potential six **-Eight!-** pack.

"You've been training?" It came out like a question.

"Yes." He said simply and pulled out his orange book leaning against the tree behind him. Even sweating and tired, he managed to look cool and calm, unfazed by everything around him. In fact, the only time I had seen him not look cool and collected was when he was caught in Zabuza's water prison jutsu. He was afraid then, not for himself, no, he was afraid for us, his students, his team. Ever since the bell test I knew that Kakashi-sensei would always protect us, not because he liked us, not because we were his students and not even because we were the future ninja of the leaf. He would protect us because he would never leave a teammate behind, he said as much to us.

Pain shot through me again, making me aware of how large my chakra had gotten, it was near unbearable, so much so that I let a little chakra leak out of my hands. It was a dangerous move for most, if someone were to channel raw chakra and had nowhere to channel it to, the chakra was likely to recede back into them. It could end in either blocking their chakra off or exploding that coil, the least server was a few cases of chakra burns. They hurt like hell and were hard to treat though.

I, on the other hand, was able to let a little chakra out this way, of course I used it only when it got too much, even if my chakra control was good I still didn't want to take chances.

I suddenly felt a hand clasping my wrist and my chakra flow stopped, I looked up to see Kakashi staring hard at me. His book was gone and his piercing dark eye was burning into mine. I imagined that his Sharingan was spinning but wasn't sure because it was covered.

"Do you know how dangerous that is Sakura?" The question was a rhetorical one but with one look into his dark eye I found myself compelled to answer, so I did.

"Yes, people have died from trying to release chakra without purpose, though some have been lucky to have only cut off all access to their chakra network or have a few chakra burns. Only people with a lot of control are able to do it correctly." I told him in a small voice.

Surprise flickered across his features briefly before he covered it and his hard stare was back. "Then why try it?"

I gulped, taking a large breath of air. "Because...sometimes the pain is too much. Sometimes my jutsu's don't take enough chakra and it hurts too much." I looked down, for some odd reason I felt ashamed, I felt weak.

I often felt weak in team seven, Kakashi was such a high ranked ninja and Sasuke and Naruto felt light years ahead of me. However, I didn't mind that, I knew I wouldn't be on their level, not only was I female, something that gave me a slight disadvantage, but I also lacked drive. I was a ninja for all the wrong reasons so I expected Sasuke, and even Naruto, the dead-late baka he was, to be stronger than me. But never, not once, had I been ashamed of my weaknesses, not once had a scolded myself for stopping before the boys, for not pushing myself, for not being strong. It had never mattered to me that I was weak, but right now it did. It mattered that I was weak in my sensei's eyes.

Kakashi may have been a lot of things, a pervert, lazy, late and a sadist, but he was still important to me. He was my sensei and his opinion mattered to me, and right now I didn't want him to see me as weak.

Another shot of pain passed through me and I blew a breath out, it was ragged and even I could hear the pain in it. I mentally kicked myself, I was doing it again, looking weak in front of Kakashi-sensei.

I felt Kakashi's grip on my wrist loosen and fall, after a second of silence he spoke. "No jutsu that eats enough chakra aye?" My head snapped up, his voice had gone back to that lazy relaxed drawl and he was smiling. "Then how about I show you a few."

I stared at him for a long time, well, it felt like a long time. In truth it was only a few seconds but my brain was in overdrive. Kakashi was going to teach me a high level jutsu, something that he never did for the boys. I knew that Kakashi-sensei favoured the boys of team seven, Sasuke more than Naruto. But I knew I always came last on his list. It was for many reasons too, ranging from the fact that I was unmotivated to the fact that I was a girl and it was harder for him to deal with me. Still, I didn't mind, because all I was, all I am, is a paper ninja. Well, at least I was before I killed Haku.

I smiled finally and soon, my smile stretched into a grin. "I'd love that sensei."

"Okay then." he said stepping away. "Show me what you can do."

I found myself grinning, I was getting better at using Haku's jutsu's and other moves. Kakashi had yet to see them, when he trained us, he taught us new things or simple made us do endurance. He had yet to see what I could do now, but I was going to show him that I wasn't as weak as he thought, as everyone thought. I was going to make him proud and show my strength.

* * *

I laid there panting, I felt sore all over and my chakra was low, I had used more chakra then I usually did but I knew I wasn't about to die from it yet. I was grinning though, my face was the only thing that did not hurt, though I knew that if I smiled so wide for much longer that my face would be aching too.

After I had shown Kakashi all I had inherited from Haku, he looked thoughtful, I was sure that he had already fought off the surprise and now was in control of his expression. Then he smiled and taught me some hand signs. He didn't tell me what the jutsu was, it did look slightly familiar though. When he though that I knew the signs he told me to push chakra into it, a lot of chakra. I did as I was told, I pushed just over half my chakra into the jutsu and with a poof of smoke there was another me standing next to me. I stared at myself and myself stared back.

"Kakashi-sensei?" I turned to him, looking questioningly, his eyes were wide in surprise and I saw a calculating gleam in them. He stared at me and myself, eyes darting to both of us, then, slowly, he reached out a hand and touched myself in the shoulder, giving her a strong poke.

"HEY! THAT HURTS. KEEP YOUR FINGERS TO YOURSELF BEFORE I KNOCK YOU INTO NEXT WEEK." Myself yelled at our sensei rubbing her arm.

His eyes widened again before he smiled.

"What's this jutsu Kakashi-sensei? Who is this?" I asked eyes flickering to myself standing next to me and back to Kakashi.

"I'd thought you'd recognise this one Sakura." Kakashi said smiling. "It's a shadow clone ninjutsu."

I was shocked, I knew that the shadow clones took a lot of chakra, even to make one. Before I never had enough chakra to use this jutsu, also there was the fact that this was a a jutsu found in the forbidden scroll. For a second I wondered how Naruto was able to get to the scroll, surely a scroll of that much importance would be kept in the Hokage library. I brushed of the thought though, I had other things to worry about right now. Like the fact that I now had a shadow clone standing next to me.

**We can make shadow clone? We. Are. Awesome! Shannaro! **Inner pumped her fist in the air.

There were so many things that I could do now. I had read up on shadow clones in the library, when I had first seen Naruto use that jutsu I, arrogantly, thought that I could do the same. But once I had read about Shadow clones, the limited amount of information that was there. I knew that this jutsu, even if I was able to find someone willing to teach me this forbidden ninjutsu, was out of me league. I would never have the chakra to learn it, so I never tried. But here was a shadow clone standing next to me. and I had done it on my first try.

**YEAH! We did it on our first try. **Inner shouted now doing a happy dance.

Sure I had do the other jutsu's I knew on my first try, but that was only the three ninjutsu they taught at the academy. But it wasn't a high ranking ninjutsu like a shadow clone.

A Shadow clone, I thought in awe looking at the image of myself.

"Okay." Kakashi said, drawing my attention back to him. "I'll tell you some things about shadow clones and then we can really train."

I saw a glint in his eyes, one I knew all too well. I'd seen the glint when ever he assigned us another 'Catch Tora The Cat' mission. Every time we had to clean another river out. Every time we were sent to look after children of noble families. And mostly, before he made us run so long that we could not even find the strength to walk out of the training ground. It was the evil glint that promised pain and discomfort for you, which meant amusement for him.

I gulped, I knew that I was going to get a real work out, but I also felt ready. Because, behind that evil glint, there was another look, Kakashi was proud of her. And even though Sakura was very selfish, she still liked to please others, mostly because it gave her a good feeling, reinforcing her selfishness. So she would try her hardest just to make Kakashi-sensei proud of her, see that shine that she had never seen her sensei direct at anyone. Not at Naruto or even Sasuke, she would beat them for once and she would make Kakashi proud of her first.

It was a tiny goal, a little dream, but it was better then her last dream. It felt more likely to happen to.

**That is a blatant lie Outter, I know for a fact that we will marry Sasuke-kun one day. My fortune teller told me so.** Inner nodded, folding her arms as if to say, so there.

I internally shook my head, Inner's fortune teller was Inner, and listened to Kakashi as he explain the pros of shadow clones.

"Ne, ne Sakura. You did really good." Kakashi said smiling down at her.

She looked back at him from her place laying on the ground, she was still grinning. She had caught her breath a little while ago and now was just basking in the ache of accomplishment. She had finished everything that Kakashi-sensei asked her to do, they had trained for under half the amount of time that she did by herself and she got twice as much done. but that could have had something to do with her shadow clone. A shadow clone, she still could not believe it.

"I think you should go home and get some sleep. wouldn't want to be late for our team meeting tomorrow." Kakashi said smiling.

I was still grinning and I found myself giggling even though a part of me, Inner, was annoyed that _he_ was telling _me_ not to be late. Instead of yelling, something I would have done any other time, I found myself telling him I'd try not to as I stood up and went to leave.

"Thanks Kaka-sensei. See you tomorrow." I called as I left, I felt like humming. In the end, today felt like a good day.

Still, we did find The Reaper. Inner remarked, putting a slight gloom on my mood, but it wasn't dark for long.

Yes, but now I can look twice as fast with my shadow clone. I grinned, skipping the rest of the way home despite my aching body.

* * *

Kakashi watch as Sakura walked merrily out of the training ground, pink hair swishing behind her as she walked. He was just trying to blow off some steam when she turned up at the training ground. Usually he didn't use team sevens training ground, he had a private one that he used often. But he really needed to hit something and this one was closer then his private one.

He often had these urges, when he saw something or someplace that reminded him of his old team. He just trained and trained until he was too tired to think about it, or he would distract himself with something else.

So when Sakura had come walking into the training ground he had not left before she noticed him, no he stayed. He was curious as to why she was here, Kakashi knew that Sasuke has a training ground he often used at the Uchiha compound and that Naruto just did not train here either, a scarring memory about past ninja making him unconsciously stay away from the training grounds when he was alone. He also though that Sakura did not come here to train, in fact he had doubted that she trained at all.

And when he had felt her chakra leak into the air he had her arm in a tight grip so fast that he did not even realized what he was doing. He felt so anger, whether his anger was at the man who had badmouthed the Uchiha clan. He was a civilian that had said there was no good Uchiha and that he was glad they were gone.

Firstly he felt angered on behalf his student, the last Uchiha that had lost his whole family taken away. But after that, what had him even more anger was the part about there being no good Uchiha. Obito was most pure, good hearted person who he had ever met and he was a Uchiha, And Kakashi, selfishly, felt more angry on behalf of his old, long gone, teammate then his still here, still suffering student.

So maybe the anger with the civilian mixed into the anger at this girls disregard to her own life and I was holding her too tightly. But when she told me why she was doing it, that she had done this before, I felt the anger drain from my body.

She just wanted relief from the pain, it was something I could relate to, so on a whim, both to say sorry and to distract myself, I offered to train with her. I had asked to see what she could do and I was amazed. If I had not already suspected it with what she had shown me by simply letting her raw chakra leak out of her with no direction, I would have defiantly caught on after she had shown me some of her jutsu's. I knew that those jutsu were not originally hers, but she had them down as if she had been doing them all her life. I had, briefly, seen what Haku could do and I knew that Sakura was better, she may not have been as fast, strong or even agile as the boy but she wielded his jutsu well. It seemed that she, instinctively or not, she always seemed to put the perfect amount of chakra into a jutsu, she didn't waste any.

When she was done, I taught her the hand signs for the Kage Bunshin and gave her no more instruction that to put in a lot of chakra. My hopes were neither high nor low, I knew that women were better at chakra control then men, it was a simple fact. Woman had less chakra capacities and so they had more control, its how they made their smaller reserves last longer. Where as men had larger amounts of chakra and were able to afford being a little heavy handed when supplying their jutsu's with chakra.

When Sakura was able to make a shadow clone on her first try, with barely any direction, I knew that what was just a passing though a half hour ago was true. Sakura was a prodigy. Not in the same way that most were though, not like Sasuke or even Kakashi himself. No, all her scores were average, barely scraping the requirement to pass, the only score she excelled in was the written exams, something that was of little use to field ninja. But still she was a prodigy in chakra control, sure it didn't sound all that cool or useful, in fact with the reserve she had before the mission at wave her control would be useless. But with her reserve being so large now...she would be able to learn any jutsu she wanted.

He reserve had tripled and now, with something to work with, she was able to use her control to a fuller use. And if she brought her skills of taijutsu up and learnt a few genjutsu, she would be one of the greatest ninja that the leaf had ever trained.

All of team seven would be in fact. Team seven had the most potential he had ever seen, and not just in individual power but also in team power. They seemed to adapt to each other, changing to suit the needs of the mission and the other two. The first sign of their great teamwork was shown in wave. How Sakura had retreated to a guard and both Naruto and Sasuke fought together, making plans with each other and coordinating effortlessly. Then, after wave, he had seen how the boys moved away slightly from protecting Sakura and how she had stepped up. They weren't equal, no team really was, but they balanced each other, something that was key for a successful team.

Finally Sakura was out of sight and Kakashi smiled. Team seven would become powerful enough to rival the Sannin, they had the potential and, he knew even if Sakura did not, they all had the will of fire.

Kakashi pulled out his book and started to leave the training ground, the training session was fun. Maybe he should come back tomorrow...but then again, maybe he'll just sit in a tree and read.

* * *

**I would like to thank everyone that wished my dad well. I am glad to say that he is fine, he had his operation and everything went fine. He's sentenced to bed rest for now and spends all day sitting in bed watching tv and youtube. Also I realized that I missed a week of updating so I'll update again in the next couple of days and then again a week from today.**

**Until then R&R.**

**Oh, and check out the poll on my profile on who you want this Sakura to end up with.**


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Believe it!**

* * *

"Anything?" Sakura asked.

"Nothing. What about you?" Sakura, the shadow clone, replied looking back to the original.

"Less then nothing." I sighed, my head falling onto the desk.

**What did you expect, to suddenly find it, that with a shadow clone the book would just magically turn up. I mean if you were Naruto you could make like a million shadow clones and each of them would only have to read one book. **Inner sighed. **Stupid baka, able to create a million shadow clones.**

_Hey, _I exclaimed in return, _it isn't Naruto's fault that we can't make a million shadow clones._

**Well can we at least make one more?** Inner said from her laying position in my mind scape.

I paused and thought about it, I felt my chakra reserves, I had a lot of chakra, more then enough for another shadow clone. I looked at the time, there was not clock in the Hokage library when Sakura had first gotten here but she had quickly fixed that.

There was a, just off cream, clock on the wall now, it was stuck there with her chakra. She was proud to say that she had invented it. Using the theory of tree walking she adapted the chakra sticking method to apply to objects. All she had to do was channel a little chakra into the clock and make it stick to the wall the same way she made her feet stick to a tree.

It was almost six fifteen, she looked back down to her unfinished book. She was feeling conflicted, she knew she had to find The Reaper but she had gotten so use to training before going to bed. Sure she had gotten double the work she she usually did but she still had not found anything.

Her leg was shaking, she couldn't concentrate and there was a different ache in her. She sighed getting up, her shadow clone looked at her in question.

"I'm going to to a little training. You stay here and keep reading." I told my clone before pulling out my scroll, I was gone before she could say a word against it.

**Why are we going to train? **Inner asked suspiciously. **You hate training, it makes you sweaty and your hair frizzy and greasy at the same time. **

_I know,_ I sighed. _It's just that my body has gotten so use to training now that I feel..._

I trailed off, not knowing the answer myself, it was a mixture of things really. All I knew was that I wanted, no, I needed to train.

I walked swiftly to the training ground, my muscles burned with the need to run, to stretch. I had become addicted to that burn, I didn't understand it though, I hated everything that came with training. I hated the pain, the sweat, the heat and the ache that stayed with you all the time.

It confused me, maybe I had gotten so used to training in the month since the wave mission. I suspected that it had something to do with my team, they were so dedicated to their training and training myself made me feel closer to their level. Of course I knew that I wasn't on their level, I doubted I'd ever be, but even though I trained alone at this time. The session with Kakashi was a one off. It still made me feel closer to my team, it felt like a special, individual team bonding exercise.

**You do realize how contradicting that sounds.** Inner said grinning.

_Well it's a good thing I didn't say it out loud then._ I replied.

Inner was about say something else when we reached the training ground.

We were both shocked to see that our team was there, Naruto and Sauke along with Kakashi. They were training together.

For a heart stopping moment I felt betrayed, why were they training without me? If I hadn't come here I wouldn't even know. I would think that my team were off doing their own thing like usually. I would think that they were training alone, but not for a second had I thought that they were training together...together and without me.

I felt a stinging burn in my eyes, I wanted to cry, it was something I did often. Otou-san said I was sensitive, Kaa-san said I was emotional, the children that bullied me said I was a cry-baby. The truth was that I didn't hide my emotions, I just couldn't do it. It was even harder considering the fact that I was a ninja and ninja were suppose to be deceptive. They were suppose to be able to hide their thoughts, feeling, jutsus, they were suppose to hide everything.

I couldn't hide my feelings, when I was sad or hurt I cried and when I was angry my temper flared and I tended to hit things. I could not, no matter how much I tried, hide who I was, and that made me sensitive and emotional and, on occasions, a cry-baby.

But I found that, even though I couldn't hide my emotions inside of me, I could still hide away from everyone as they were let out. So I was ready to run, to sneak out of the training ground and go back to the my room, lay in my bed and cry.

However, my plan was foiled when I was spotted.

"SAKURA-CHAN YOUR LATE!" Naruto yelled out running towards me.

I was confused, we hadn't set up additional training time, I would have known. I, almost obsessively, listened to everything that Kakashi said during training, from his stupid excuses on why he was late, to his stupid jokes. I even listened to his pervy little giggles.

Now don't get me wrong, it was not that I felt, at all, attracted to my sensei **-I do. Kakashi is hot!-** I just had this thing wired into my brain to listen to my superiors, and no matter what Kakashi acted like, he was still my superior.

It seemed that Naruto didn't notice my confusion because he was still going on.

"...A bad influence. He never comes on time, always gives those lame excuses and he reads those pervy books." Naruto paused as a look of utter horror overtook his face. "_Your_ not going to start reading those books, are you Sakura-chan. Then you'll really turn into Kaka-sensei, you'll come late all the time and giggle like a little girl and...you'll even have your own masks. I'll never be able to see Sakura-chans face."

Naruto started to shake me, yelling at me about not becoming another Kakashi. I was getting angry, I felt a headache coming on from Naruto's hysterical screaming and soon I snapped.

"DON'T YELL IN MY EAR BAKA!" And with a mighty swing of my fist, instictivally powered with a little chakra, I punched Naruto. I let out all my emotions into the hit, the burn in my eyes disappearing, and instead my anger started to burn.

His grip on me was almost violently torn away as he flew backwards. He flew there the air of a good five seconds before touching the ground and skidding along the dirt for another five seconds.

**Shannaro! That was our best so far. **Inner was suddenly in front of a black board, she rubbed out something that was on it, 6.59 seconds, and wrote 10.32 second. **I estimate twenty feet?**

_That's being generous, I was thinking more like fifteen. _I commented.

Inner pushed her glasses, where did they come from, up the bridge of her nose and nodded. **We'll compromise, I'll write 17.5 feet.**

I internally nodded, I was fine with that.

She rubbed out the 13 feet that was written and wrote down 17.5.

**No destruction. **Inner said leaving the previous score of 1 dog, 1 mail box and very old lady with a very heavy bag.

**No flair.** Inner commented, leaving the words 'whined up spin' on the board.

**And lastly, pain level.** Inner said.

We both peered over to see that Naruto was whimpering, he had a red cheek and his eye was looking puffy. His arm was at an odd angle, he sat up rubbing his back. He groaned, spitting out a mouthful of dirt, ew.

Inner grinned as she changed the last one, 'That's got to hurt', to 'Really painful looking but at least that should shut you up for a little while.'

I, internally, sighed at Inner's long name.

"Wow." A voice said.

I turned seeing Kakashi standing there, looking at Naruto who was still trying to stand.

"That was some punch Sakura." Kakashi commented smiling.

My heart fluttered, it was a feeling I got every time I was complimented, but this time it was stronger, maybe it was because it was my sensei. I really did respect him.

"Thanks." I said smiling slightly.

"Hn. Your late." Sasuke said from his place next to Kakashi.

I was surprised that I didn't notice him, surprised that Inner didn't either.

**I NOTICED HIM.** Inner screeched back at me, lying, and I rolled my eyes at her.

"Yes Sakura." Kakashi said nodding. "You are very late."

My temper rose, Kakashi was a hypocrite, and that was what I told him.

"You are such a hypocrite Kaka-sensei. Your always late, and besides, I didn't know we were meeting up today, I would have remembered if you told me." I pointed an accusing finger at him.

"Oh yeah." He said with wide eyes. "I came looking for you but I couldn't find you so..." He trailed off and I imagined a sheepish look on his face, though, thanks to the mask, I could not see it.

Instantly my chest lightened, they hadn't been training without me, they hadn't forgotten me, they just couldn't find me. I felt myself grin.

"It's okay Kakashi-sensei." I felt the happiness overflow inside of me, I still had a place in team seven, so, naturally, I easily forgave him. "I forgive you."

"So Kakashi-sensei." Naruto had spoke, finally shook of his injuries and joined us.

I swear he heals instantly, its one of the reasons I don't feel bad about hitting him so hard, also because he's a baka. Inner shook her head in disbelief as we watched an uninjured Naruto bound on the balls of his feet, talking to Kakashi as if he hadn't been knocked 15 **-17.5-** feet back.

"...I mean I like that your going to train us more, but why are we here so late? I mean maybe we had plans, Sakura-chan and I could have had a date and you could have just ruined it. When would she ever say yes to me again? I know I'm awesome and much better then Sasuke-teme, how could she say no twice? But Kaka-sensei you still ruined my date with Sakura-chan." I had enough and bonked him on the head, he fell on his but and was rubbing his head.

"Ow." Naruto whined.

"Let's just keep training." Sasuke said irritated.

Kakashi smiled nodding.

He sent Naruto and Sasuke back to their tasks, they were sparring each other, they were on pretty even footing. Of course Sasuke was more skilled but Naruto had numbers on his side and Sasuke was having trouble watching all the Naruto's. He had his Sharingan on and he was easily dispelling the clones making his way to the real Naruto.

"Let's pick up where we left off, ne Sakura?" Kakashi said with that evil gleam in his eyes.

I narrowed my eyes but the effect was ruined by my large grin.

"Do your worse sensei."

* * *

It accrued to me as I picked myself up, yet again, and stood on shaking legs, that telling Kakashi-sensei to do his worse was not a good idea. Kakashi still expected me to carry on, even the boys, Sasuke and Naruto, looked at me in pity as they sat down drinking water and having a break.

After Kakashi had made me do all the exercise I had done yesterday, he then made me spar him. But if that was not enough I was wearing weights as heavy as I was on each of my arms, and the weights on my legs were as heavy as Naruto. I could barely more, let alone hit or block and yet he still expected me to spar with him and put up a decent fight.

I gritted my teeth. The worse part was when I was stricken down, sure I got to rest for a few seconds, but it was not worth it to try and get myself to stand again.

And he taunted me, all through the fight, and it was not just the fact that he was reading as he fought me like he had done to Naruto during the bell test. No, that would have been kind. Kakashi had tied himself to the post, he only had use of his left leg, and his right arm, which held his little orange book. But with that one leg he had kicked me to the ground so many times, it should have been easy to get around it but these weights made me slower.

And if that wasn't bad enough each time I had complained he came up with more ways to outclass me. I had complained about him using his right leg, I was sure that he favoured his right. Kakashi had agreed to change legs and he had beat me just as bad. When I complained about the weights he grabbed the same amount of weight I had on my body and strapped it to his free left leg. It only made his kicks harder and more painful. I was so embarrassed about what he would do if I complained about something else so I shut up and carried on.

I got knocked down, a lot, but every time I got back up and tried again. Though it was getting harder and harder to get up, this last try took me almost five minutes. I was beat, but I didn't want to give up.

I'd tried everything though, I strategize, I ran head first, I came from the side, I even came from above, noting worked. I had not even landed one hit either. The man was tied up and I couldn't even tap him.

I took a step and promptly fell on my face, I was in so much pain. My muscles burned as if they were on fire, as if I was on fire. My throat burned too and I could feel my heart beating in it, my mouth tasted the salty rusty taste that I knew was blood. I didn't know if I had somehow busted a blood vessel and the blood was starting to come up my throat or if I had bitten my tongue.

I heard Naruto screaming that I was dead, that Kakashi had killed me, If I had the energy to, I would have sighed.

"Well I guess that will be all." I heard Kakashi say.

I wanted to get up, to say I was fine and that I could carry on, but the fact remained that I could not. I was having trouble moving to breath, let alone moving to get home. I laid there for a while, just trying to catch my breath.

It took me five minutes before I had composed myself enough to flip myself over. I was now laying on my back, looking up at the clouds. They were so white and fluffy, the moon was out, we had been training for so long, still the moon highlighted the clouds. I liked clouds, I liked out they drifted by so slowly, never in a hurry. They were peaceful too, they made me feel so calm, so, I yawned, tired. I was tired, I wanted my bed so bad, I wanted to sleep in my comfy pink bed with those thousands of pillows that just ended up on my floor by morning.

But then again, I thought, it was pretty comfy here too. Even if there was an annoying sound of people talking, I could just does...

I snapped my eyes open as I was hit with waves of memories, my eyes were wide as I soaked in the information that had suddenly assaulted me.

Quickly, I stood up, no longer caring about the burn or the tiredness, I didn't care that I still had weights on me, I stood and ran to my house. I pumped chakra into my legs to move me faster. I ignored my team yelling after me and just carried on.

My clone had just dispelled and I had just gotten its memories. I needed to get to the Hokage library. Now.

* * *

**I know it's a little late but I hope you can forgive me, I was suppose to update two days ago but I suddenly got an idea for this chapter, but I had already wrote half of this. I puzzled over it for a while until I realized that I had already set myself up so that I could do both my ideas at the same time. Because the beauty of shadow clones is that you get to be in two places at once.**

**Also I had a story stuck in my head and I just could not get it out of my head until I wrote some of it down. Check it out, it's called 'This Is My Goal.'**

**Anyway. I spent all today trying to get this done between cleaning. See you in three days.**

**R&R.**


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